Towards the Horizon

2016 has been a year with plenty of passage making. Much more than originally planned. Starting from the Marquesas where we spent the last cyclone season we sailed westwards via Tahiti and Niue to Tonga. Unlike the majority of the cruising boats crossing the Pacific we did not sail on to Fiji, New Zealand or Australia, but decided to sail back to French Polynesia against… Continue reading »

Yesterday we had a day with light winds, did hours of sailing, some motorsailing and a few of motoring. We caught a (smallish) yellow-fin tuna, then a torrential rainfall washed down the boat and we finished the usual post-passage cleaning already during the last hours of the trip. We arrived at 11 pm at the pass and proceeded straight to our favourite bay Onemea. It’s… Continue reading »

Last evening the wind died on us and left us motoring for most of the night. There were a few huffs and puffs between the heavy rain clouds that had us hopefully turn off the engine a few times, but they only lasted for half an hour or so. This morning started grey, again with just a light breeze, but the weather forecast promises some… Continue reading »

The weather forecast was changing daily while we were planning this trip, but so far it seems that we’ve picked a good window. We’re sailing fast and we’re almost on a direct course to the Gambier. Today the sky has turned grey and for tomorrow a wind shift from the NE to the NW is predicted–we’ll see whether it brings squally weather.

Amanu is a medium sized atoll with a small village (200 people according to the mayor). It is insofar special, as a wide reef just south of the village forms a nice anchorage that is protected in all directions except from the S and SE. Yesterday we visited the cute little village (with a not so cute rubbish dump nearby from where plastic is blown… Continue reading »

We spent a week in Hao, first anchored outside the dock, later we moved into the harbour and joined our friends on Ednbal and Raynad who were already alongside there. Apart from daily sundowners on the dock with our neighbours and free (!) internet provided by the mayor’s office Hao doesn’t have too many attractions. The ladies at the ‘mairie’ who I asked about anything… Continue reading »

Yesterday it was completely calm and in the afternoon we decided to use the opportunity and lower the foresail, because we had seen a few chafed areas on the yankee last time we were sailing and we wanted to put some tape there before a real damage occurred. When we had the sail down we realised that it was already too late, the leech line… Continue reading »

The last days we were busy with internet tasks. After almost two months without internet acces (except for emails via SSB radio) the list of tasks is long. The i-net access here in Hao is slow but we certainly won’t complain as it is free!!! I used this opportunity to fix some bugs on our web page. There were some issues concerning mobile friendliness, now… Continue reading »